Seniors without doctors: over-65s are growing in Italy but there are no geriatricians and beds in the geriatric wards. The alert comes from the Italian Society of Gerontology and Geriatrics (SIGG) and the Italian Society of Hospital and Territory Geriatrics (SIGOT). Just 2,500 specialists and only 3,560 beds in geriatrics, in the face of an influx into the emergency room determined above all by the elderly and more difficult to manage patients. Appeal from the geriatricians, therefore, to the Minister of Health Roberto Speranza and to the President of the Regions and Autonomous Provinces Stefano Bonaccini: "Urgently approve the ministerial document of geriatric hospital care at the State-Regions Conference, ready for almost 2 years and never examined by the Health Commission. "
The two scientific societies ask for the availability of geriatric beds to be increased and the courses dedicated to geriatric patients to be implemented in the Emergency Room. It is also necessary to establish, they say, the figure of the geriatric emergency nurse, duly trained, and to increase the number of places of specialization in geriatrics. All indications already put on paper in the document 'The appeal of geriatric patients to the emergency room and hospitalization', prepared by a technical group set up at the Ministry of Health with the participation of the representatives of the two scientific societies. Document sent on 28 March 2018 by the Ministry to the Health Commission of the Conference of the Regions, with the aim of arriving at the State-Regions Conference to be definitively approved, but which, incomprehensibly, almost two years later, is still waiting to be scheduled in State-Regions Conference. SIGG and SIGOT therefore appeal to the Minister of Health and the President of the Regions to speed up the process for the approval of the document.
Italy is in fact one of the most "old" countries in the world. Data in hand, there are 168.9 over 65s, every 100 young people: an old-age index with a new national record, as emerged from the Istat 2019 Report. A longevity that is also accompanied, however, by a significant increase in the absolute number of over 75s with multiple chronic diseases, which often make the use of hospitals indispensable, with 1.3 million hospitalizations per year and an average stay of 9 days, not to mention the many complex patients aged between 65 and 75 years. But the number of beds in geriatrics, just 3,560, is not sufficient to withstand the shock wave, and also the management in the emergency rooms of these "fragile" patients shows critical issues "access to the emergency room, at the base of the majority part of the hospitalizations - explain Raffaele Antonelli Incalzi and Filippo Luca Fimognari, respectively Presidents of SIGG and SIGOT - are between 230 and 300 per thousand inhabitants in the span of age ranging from 40 to 69 years and then rearing up, exceeding 500 per thousand between 75 and 80 years. Patient management is however particularly complex, in view of the small number of available geriatric beds. The indications provided by the Ministerial Guidance Document - they conclude - would allow to significantly improve the assistance to these patients and lighten the First Aid workload. "